High pressure pasteurization of Curry (liquid seasoning) to achieve shelf-life of 100 days and more in the cooler (39-41 F)

ABSTRACT

The present invention is a method for pasteurization of Curry, a sauce or simmer sauce made with onion, tomato and plethora of spices, mostly used in Indian or other Asian cuisines. CAPS uses 5 things to achieve such long shelf-life—2-step unique cooking process, ingredients mainly spices, HPP (high pressure pasteurization), PET containers and refrigeration. We are not using HPP here for a 2.5-5 log cycle reduction in microorganisms as done by all products now as our cooking process itself brings microbes level to &lt;10. However as evident from the lab reports, HPP does play a role in extending the shelf-life as we compared both pre-HPP and post-HPP samples. Our choice of PET containers (recycle code 1) has a role too on account of its 50 times less OTR than the microwavable PP containers (recycle code 5) used mostly for the restaurant take-outs.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

During my MBA course-work at Ross School of Business, University ofMichigan, Ann Arbor, Mich., I worked at Domino's Pizza HQ in Ann Arborfor a project. I always marveled at Domino's journey from a smallpizzeria in small town to become a global food chain, one store rightthere in our neighborhood at Kolkata, India. So I was kind of botheredwith a question, why there is no Indian food chain anywhere like ChinesePanda Express or Mexican Chipotle or Italian Olive Garden. Incidentallywhen we started in 2009 with the express purpose of making an Indianfood chain, our cafe in Ypsilanti, Mich. is just 3 blocks away from thefirst Domino's store. So at least the history has our back. By 2011, weopened our first franchise location with the same menu in Columbus,Ohio, 3 hours drive from Ypsilanti, Mich. Then our struggle started. In2011, I don't think there were 2 Indian restaurants with the same menuin the US though there are 3500 Indian restaurants altogether. Normallythe Indian restaurant owners may own 4-5 restaurants in and around atown but they use different locations to cover such diverse Indiancuisine. The reason is as saying goes, in India, the language and thefood change every 100 miles. And yes Indian constitution does have 22official languages. By 2015, I did come across Indian food's franchiseconcept in CA.

To maintain the same standard at Columbus, Ohio location, we decided todeliver the base sauces of onion, tomato from Ypsilanti, Mich. location.A few Indian restaurants like us make the base sauces and use thesesauces to make entrees as per the patrons' order. Entrees are basicallyCurry based. So when you order say Chicken Tikka Masala, the chef wouldmix the onion and tomato base sauce, add dairy cream, mix cooked orgrilled chicken and saute the combination with some other spices to makethe entree. Majority of Indian restaurants won't bother to make the basesauces. They would straightway use some onion paste, mix with tomatosauce from can, mix spices and do other things as described above tomake the same entree. Like this is how we Indians cook at home. Thechallenge was to send the base sauces in the cooler which is good enoughfor manufacturing plus 7 days. That did not work. Then we tried sendingthe frozen base sauces. That could have stayed good for 30 days or more.But when we used the frozen base sauces after 20 days to make theentrees as explained earlier, it tasted so different. After 6 months, weclosed down the Columbus location. It was meant to be a franchiselocation, besides maintaining the same taste and flavor of food, therewas no point in having a full-fledged operation of an Indian restaurantwith a head chef and other assistants in the kitchen. That model wassimply not viable.

The Columbus setback pushed me on the path of finding longer shelf-lifefor the base sauces or ideally Curry. Please see attached our menu whichI devised in anticipation of finding some solutions for Curryshelf-life. You won't find such menu anywhere where our patrons can mixand match to create 700+ entrees.

June 2015 was the turning point for me when the news of sale of GardenFresh Salsa to the Campbell Soup got splashed all over in Michigan. ADetroit based food vendor Mr Jack Aronson struck the biggest deal everfor Michigan food scene when he sold his company in $231 million. Andhis products ‘Garden Fresh Salsa’ was No 1 brand in the US and his‘Hummus’ No 3. Why? His was the first ‘Fresh’ salsa and hummus in therefrigerated section of the grocery stores in the US. And yes HPP gavethem the shelf-life of 75-80 days without using any preservatives. Thisis the first time I heard about HPP. But the big question was—is Curryfit for HPP? HPP is all about applying 85000 psi pressure for 3 minutesand what happens to taste and flavor is anybody's guess. Like HPP hadbeen done on Salsa, Hummus, Juices etc which do not use Spices like wedo.

When I first met Jack on 5 May 2016, he was pretty impressed with myconcept of ‘Disruptive Eating’ and how Indian food can play a role infighting the obesity in Michigan and beyond. Luckily for me he wasfamiliar with Indian food and he instantly recognized our samples are sodifferent from the food from other Indian restaurants which he had triedbefore. Come 11 May 2016, when Ms Maggie Cook, Assistant to Jack and anentrepreneur in her own right texted me in the morning of 11th May tocome and pick up HPPed Curry samples, perhaps the first in the world. Sothe Curry had withstood the HPP pressure. Then we, I, my wife and ourChef, tasted these samples in cold and making some entrees, no change atall in flavor or texture. So the next waiting game began for theshelf-life. We were keeping fingers crossed.

As is the precedence for other HPPed foods, we asked the BRS Lab inMichigan to test HPPed curry for 75 days shelf-life in the cooler. Inthe back of my head, there was ‘double mega thermal pasteurization’ (our2-step cooking process) which I mentioned earlier. So I kept somesamples for the internal testing. By the end of July 2016, 75th day labreports were in with complete Organoleptic test which found the taste,texture, color, smell all acceptable. On 11 Sep. 2016, at 120th daymark, we found the HPPed curry samples as good as day one in ourinternal testing. Our internal testing involved to taste the Curry incold as well as to make the entree from those samples. That is how thepatrons are supposed to use our Curry—cold as a sauce, dip, spread ordressing or to make entree by heating it to 212 F.

At this point, we decided to file for a US patent on 21 Sep. 2016 forusing HPP to get the shelf-life of 100 days or more. But we did not havethe lab report for the 100th day to back up our claim yet. More theshelf-life for our HPPed curry, more the impact of our invention as weare aiming to change the health profile of the US and beyond.

So the next step for me was how to maximize the shelf-life for Curryonce we knew now it is good for more than 100 days. Mr Aronson had usedthe same PET containers for our Curry as he had used for his salsa,hummus etc. That is true that ours is the first cold filled packagedIndian food and it was to be HPPed, PET containers were the naturalchoice for much better impact strength. But the fact of the matter isIndian food is served steaming hot in the restaurants all over the worldand hence so when the patrons order take-out or carry the leftovershome, the natural tendency is to ‘microwave’ the food for reheating. Forreal flavor of the spices, Indian food needs to be heated say up to160-180 F. So all Indian restaurants use PP containers (recycle code 5)which is ‘Microwavable.’ On contrast, PET containers are notMicrowavable and a bit costlier. But we made that compromise for thesake of longer shelf-life in 2016.

Turmeric is the soul of Indian food and I am not sure why it is not usedin any other cuisine as per my knowledge. I have never seen Turmeric asa product or spice at Sam's club or GFS though you can find most of thespices there now-a-days. But yes I have found ‘Curcumin’ tablets atWalGreen, Curcumin being the main component of Turmeric. Curcumin hasbeen used to treat all types of health issies from the heart disease toCancer to Alzheimer to lose weight. Or People do use the ‘Turmericextract’ for the natural yellow food color for baking items, we do too.Is its distinct yellowish color the biggest impediment to its usage, notsure? Besides Turmeric, Indian food's main ingredients are Onion,Tomato, Garlic, Ginger, Cumin, Coriander, Cloves, Cinnamon. All of themhave anti microbial properties and Turmeric is the king.

Actually Turmeric pushed us to modify our cooking process. Myco-inventor and wife Navnita Dass did point out that why don't we allowTurmeric and other spices to interact with the sauce for the longerperiod in the larger containers in the separate cooler. Incidentally wehave two walking coolers, one is used for the restaurant purpose. Sothere is little human interaction or chance of any contamination in theother cooler designated for the packaged Curry production. That is how2-day cooking process with the overnight cooling was invented. The otheroption was to fill in PET containers and seal it as soon as the finalcurry is cooled to 40 F—from 135 F to 70 F in 2 hours and then 70 F to40 F in 4 hours. That could have minimized the interaction of oxygenwith the curry as very little air is left inside after the sealing. Butit minimizes the surface area of interaction between the spices andCurry too.

For the next lab test by Certified Laboratories in Chicago (official labfor APC, Milwaukee), we provided them both pre-HPP and post-HPP samplesof both curry—Mothers' Curry (vegan, onion based) and Tikka Masala Curry(vegetarian, with dairy, tomato & onion based). 90% of Indian curryflavors use some variant of these two curry. The very first resultvindicated us in the sense that our pre-HPP samples have <10 microbeswhich is less than detectable levels. And the rest is history as we nowhave 500^(th) day shelf-life report almost similar to 1^(st) weekreport. So its hard to say when HPPed Curry would go bad.

You may agree with our nomenclature of ‘Super Pasteurization’ of ourCurry which I used in my 21 Nov. 2016 letter to rephrase our invention.A food item with 6 months shelf-life in the refrigeration without anypreservatives or food additives is unheard of and here we are talkingabout 500 days.

Though we may find later what out of 5 components played how much rolein achieving such long shelf-life˜

-   1. our unique 2-step cooking process-   2. Ingredients including Spices used-   The first two brings the microbes level to <10-   3. HPP in its new avatar of not exactly killing pathogens, but    disabling them for life-   4. PET containers with 50 times less OTR than PP containers, go to    food containers-   5. Refrigeration-   The last 2 minimizes the oxygen interaction with food.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

This could be the one of the most significant inventions of 21st centuryif it is measured by its potential impact on the self, the community andthe planet. During our transformation starting in August 2013 from afine dining Indian restaurant with full bar with satellite locations at12 places to a self-service Indian cafe, being the first Soda free andonly serving Whole wheat breads cafe in Michigan or the US(www.CurryFresh.US) we became the mission-first food vendor with themission to fight the obesity and overweight prevalence here. One thingwas clear to me. Indian food is consumed by only 5% of the US populaceand for a semblance of an Indian food chain, we need 25% of populaceeating Indian food. Not an easy task by any standard given that we aretalking about changing the eating habits of the people. But yes we giveeach person to choose a purpose to eat Indian food from so many whichour concept of ‘Disruptive Eating’ creates. Eating may seem most mundaneact of our daily life but its impact is far reaching. I explain that inour blog at http://NirmalAsRamban.blogspot.com

Benefits of Such Long Shelf-Life for HPPed Curry

1. HPPed Curry makes Indian food more affordable and accessible which isat the front, center and back of DisruptiveEating.com, please see thedetails at our website. How?

A. As of today, Indian food you can buy at an Indian restaurant which isfew and far between if you think of total 3500 Indian restaurants allacross the US, half of them in NY-NZ corridor and California. Besidesthat, the restaurant food is good for only 7 days in the refrigeration.

B. Packaged Indian food are with preservatives or in the frozen section.Both distorts the real flavor of spices.

C. Our HPPed Indian food solves both problems—its good for 90 days andit keeps intact the original flavor.

D. For retail we are date-stamping for 90 days to keep parity with other‘Fresh’ items. our HPPed products do not go waste as even after 90 days,we can use these Curry at Indian restaurants and other cafeterias.

E. Hence we can offer 100% buy-back to grocery stores and that enablesto sell these products at all types of stores from Dollar General to Gasstations to 7/11s to Krogers to Whole Foods.

F. Also we have 8 oz Curry in $3, the first in the US market. So yourgourmet journey starts in $3 which can make a lunch or dinner in $5.

G. We have started our launch with Curry only which is basically Indianspices in ‘ready to use’ form which can make your salad, bowl of pastaor barbecue instantly flavor. People have lot of myths about Indian foodbeing spicy, oily, creamy so its better to start with the usage as dip,dressings, pasta sauce before graduating to making an entree of yourchoice. Later we plan to launch ‘ready to eat’ entrees and full meals.

2. HPPed Curry and CAPS can transform the restaurant industry ingeneral.

Chefs at an Indian restaurant spend 40% of their time making the basesauces and the Curry what I have seen the first hand since 2009. It issuch a lose-lose situation when they make sauces twice a week to see itgo waste if demands are less or go for urgent production if there issuddenly high demand due to some catering events or functions. HPPedCurry can solve this problem altogether and change the operational modelof an Indian restaurant resulting in huge savings. This could makeIndian food more affordable which is considered elite now.

Similarly CAPS could be used to extend the shelf-life of pizza sauce andthe stocks used in American restaurant which has potential to transformthe operations of other restaurants as well as reducing huge waste.

3. The biggest impact of HPPed Curry could be on the global food waste

Think of a country like India. It wastes 4 Billion pound of tomato and 2Billion pound of Onion every year, 22% of total produce. Why? Because itdoes not have enough cold storage facility or even after processing howmuch ketchups or onion paste with preservatives you expect people toeat. Onion, tomato and spices are main ingredients of Curry. Now assumeif we can convert even half of the wasted onion and tomato in Curry(Value added products) and HPPed them, it stays good for 500 days inrefrigeration now. But the big deal is we can export Curry to all acrossthe globe due to such long self-life and because it could be used forlunch or dinner.

Since time immemorial people used to go to India for its spices and weare bring the same in ‘ready to use’ sauce form. No need to worry abouthow much water to add or how long to cook. This saving of wastage couldbe a boon for the farmers and for the general economy of developingcountries.

CAPS could be used to transform any wasted vegetables or grains into afood with long shelf-life even in Michigan or elsewhere.

US alone wastes $165 Billion of food, 60% by the businesses like grocersand restaurants and 40% by consumers. The global food waste is onetrillion. CAPS and HPP in general can reduce this greatly to make thefight against global hunger and poverty more effective.

Conclusion:

The obesity is a global menace. Let me share link on the global obesitybelow, see attached print-outs.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/04/01/health/global-obesity-study/index.html

What chance does the United States have to stop the rise of obesity by2025? Zero, the study says.

And that I can corroborate with my own experience. People are dying 18years earlier due to obesity leave aside the quality of life impacted bylost work hours, hours spent for the health care or lost school hours ofthe kids. Still People think this is the problem for others, not us.Eating medicines to stay healthy is new normal, US consumes 52% of worldmedicines with 5% of world populace.

We believe that the health equality is the key to fight the income andeducational inequality—3 components of the social inequality so rampantand visible now-a-days in the US and all across the globe.

Our products have the potential to make the US and beyond moreequitable.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention generally relates to the use of disruptivetechnology (high pressure pasteurization) to bring the restaurantquality Indian food to the nearby grocers or to your doorstep (viaAmazon.com, we are already approved to sell at their platform and onlineordering at www.CurryFresh.net), Indian food being the key to ourmission of fighting the obesity and overweight prevalence here asexplained at www.DisruptiveEating.com, see attached print-outs of ourwebsite. The present shelf-life of 500 days for HPPed Curry has hugepotential to reduce the global food waste and change the food industryin general.

1. The food products or items mentioned in claims 1, 2, 3 are Mother'sCurry (onion based) and Tikka Masala Curry (tomato based). There curriesare used to make entrees at an Indian restaurant. So if you orderChicken Tikka Masala or Tofu Tikka Masala at ‘Nirmal’ café in Ypsilanti,Mich., our chefs would pour ‘Tikka Masala’ curry into a pan, mix grilledchicken or fried tofu into the sauce and boil it for 5-10 minutes max toget your entrees ready.

2. Both food items mentioned in claim 4 are low acid with pH>4.7 as perstipulation of FDA below though it is meant for shelf-stable food itemsat ambient temperatures.

A low-acid canned food (LACF) is any food (other than alcoholicbeverages) with a finished equilibrium pH greater than 4.6 and a wateractivity greater than 0.85, excluding tomatoes and tomato productshaving a finished equilibrium pH less than 4.7.

An acidified food (AF) is a low-acid food to which acid(s) or acidfood(s) are added and which has a finished equilibrium pH of 4.6 orbelow and a water activity (aw) greater than 0.85.

The pH of pre-HPP Mother's curry and pre-HPP Tikka Masala curry variesfrom 4.9 to 5.2. Post-HPP pH of our products varies from 4.5 to 5.5 over500 days testing as per our lab reports.

3. The method of making Mother's Curry and Tikka Masala Curry is anunique 2-step process (appendix 1). The spices such as Turmeric, Cumin,Coriander, Ginger, Garlic, Clove do play a great role in killing ofspores and spores forming bacteria as mentioned in claim 2.

HPP used in CAPS uses the cold water (40-50 F) at high pressure ofaround 85000 psi for 3 minutes to kill bacteria and othermicroorganisms.

4. As claimed in claim 2, our lab reports (appendix 2) show that CAPSdoes kill spores and spores producing bacteria. Please see attached‘Eureka’ write-up by me and an article “Response of Spores to HighPressure Processing” by the researchers from University of Delaware andothers.

5. We did have testing of our products at ambient temperature for 30days and we found it satisfactory. It opens huge possibility of ourHPPed products being the first such products shelf-stable at ambienttemperature. As of now HPPed products are shelf-stable in therefrigeration. More lab test results are awaited.

6. As claimed in claim 3, HPP does solve the taste distortion problem ofpackaged Indian food now in grocery stores either shelf-stable withpreservatives at ambient temperatures or in the frozen section. Thespices don't gel well with preservatives or are not designed to toleratesub-zero temperature for long.

7. Curry is the heart or soul of Indian cuisine. It is liquid orsemi-liquid depending on the composition. It is used to make an entree.Let me explain. If you come to our Curry Fresh cafe and order say TofuTikka Masala or Chicken Tikka Masala, both entrees. Our chef would pourTikka Masala' curry into a pan, mix tofu or grilled chicken into it andboil it for 5 minutes. Your entree is ready. Please see attached ourmenu at Nirmal café. Other Indian restaurants do it differently. WeIndians eat entrees with the rice or breads. The entrees in Indiancuisine are always served hot (say 160-200 F) for the real flavor ofspices. Though Curry at cold temperature (say 50-100 F) could be used aspasta sauce, barbeque sauce or dressing, dip or spread.

8. As mentioned in the abstract, PET containers have good impactstrength (needed for HPP), 50 times less OTR (Oxygen transmission rate),important for extended shelf-life and very low MVTR (Moisture vaportransmission rate), important for Curry with almost 99% moisturecontent. See attached for linkprint-out-http://www.alphaplastic.com/bottle-basics/plastics-comparison-chart.phpfor the comparison chart of various plastics. PET containers beat alltypes in our requirements. Only drawback of PET containers is its beingnot ‘Microwavable.

1. CAPS is the first such method of pasteurization which extends theshelf-life of a low acid food item to 500 days in refrigerationmaintaining the original taste and flavor as it does not use anypreservatives.
 2. Ours is the first HPPed food products with theshelf-life of 150 days and more in refrigeration as our cooking processeliminates spores and spores forming bacteria. HPP alone does not killthe spores and spores forming bacteria.
 3. Ours is the first packagedIndian or Asian food in refrigeration or in the ‘Fresh’ section at theUS grocery stores without any preservatives with the shelf-life of 100days and more.
 4. The food products or items mentioned in claims 1, 2, 3are Mother's Curry (onion based) and Tikka Masala Curry (tomato based).There curries are used to make entrees at an Indian restaurant. So ifyou order Chicken Tikka Masala or Tofu Tikka Masala at ‘Nirmal’ café inYpsilanti, Mich., our chefs would pour ‘Tikka Masala’ curry into a pan,mix grilled chicken or fried tofu into the sauce and boil it for 5-10minutes max to get your entrees ready.
 5. Both food items mentioned inclaim 4 are low acid with pH>4.7 as per stipulation of FDA below thoughit is meant for shelf-stable food items at ambient temperatures. Alow-acid canned food (LACF) is any food (other than alcoholic beverages)with a finished equilibrium pH greater than 4.6 and a water activitygreater than 0.85, excluding tomatoes and tomato products having afinished equilibrium pH less than 4.7. An acidified food (AF) is alow-acid food to which acid(s) or acid food(s) are added and which has afinished equilibrium pH of 4.6 or below and a water activity (aw)greater than 0.85.
 6. The pH of pre-HPP Mother's curry and pre-HPP TikkaMasala curry varies from 4.9 to 5.2. Post-HPP pH of our products vanesfrom 4.5 to 5.5 over 500 days testing as per our lab reports.
 7. Themethod of making Mother's Curry and Tikka Masala Curry as mentioned inclaim 4 is an unique 2-step process (appendix 1). The spices such asTurmeric, Cumin, Coriander, Ginger, Garlic, Clove do play a great rolein killing of spores and spores forming bacteria as mentioned in claim2.
 8. HPP used in CAPS uses the cold water (40-50 F) at high pressure ofaround 85000 psi for 3 minutes to kill bacteria and othermicroorganisms.
 9. As claimed in claim 2, our lab reports (appendix 2)show that CAPS does kill spores and spores producing bacteria. Pleasesee attached ‘Eureka’ write-up by me and an article “Response of Sporesto High Pressure Processing” by the researchers from University ofDelaware and others. We did have testing of our products at ambienttemperature for 30 days and we found it satisfactory. It opens hugepossibility of our HPPed products being the first such productsshelf-stable at ambient temperature. As of now HPPed products areshelf-stable in the refrigeration. More lab test results are awaited.10. As claimed in claim 3, HPP does solve the taste distortion problemof packaged Indian food now in grocery stores either shelf-stable withpreservatives at ambient temperatures or in the frozen section. Thespices don't gel well with preservatives or are not designed to toleratesub-zero temperature for long.
 11. Curry is the heart or soul of Indiancuisine. It is liquid or semi-liquid depending on the composition. It isused to make an entree. Let me explain. If you come to our Nirmal cafeand order say Tofu Tikka Masala or Chicken Tikka Masala, both entrees.Our chef would pour ‘Tikka Masala’ curry into a pan, mix tofu or grilledchicken into it and boil it for 5 minutes. Your entree is ready. Pleasesee attached our menu at Nirmal café. Other Indian restaurants do itdifferently. We Indians eat entrees with the rice or breads. The entreesin Indian cuisine are always served hot (say 160-200 F) for the realflavor of spices. Though Curry at cold temperature (say 50-100 F) couldbe used as pasta sauce, barbeque sauce or dressing, dip or spread. 12.As mentioned in the abstract, PET containers have good impact strength(needed for HPP), 50 times less OTR (Oxygen transmission rate),important for extended shelf-life and very low MVTR (Moisture vaportransmission rate), important for Curry with almost 99% moisturecontent. See attached for linkprint-out-http://www.alphaplastic.com/bottle-basics/plastics-comparison-chart.phpfor the comparison chart of various plastics. PET containers beat alltypes in our requirements. Only drawback of PET containers is its beingnot ‘Microwavable.